


Zero

by orphan_account



Category: South Park
Genre: 30 seconds, I have No Excuse, M/M, also, and it didn't turn out that bad??, at 1am, i wrote this from a prompt i found, i'll hate it again in like, name suggested by a friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 14:29:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14082963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Kenny usually busted in through Kyle's window at god-knows-what-hour in the morning, why would this time be any different?





	Zero

Kenny couldn't remember how many times he's done shit like this.

He enjoyed dressing up as Mysterion and busting South Park bad guys- even if it meant getting seriously hurt every time he stepped in. Usually, he'd get hurt, going over to his boyfriend's house instead of a hospital to further conceal his identity, and continue from there as if it didn't happen in the first place.

Today had gone differently.

He did a sweep of the city, as he did every night, pausing when he heard hushed chatter coming from an alleyway behind the church. Upon closer inspection, he saw his familiar curly-haired partner backed up against a wall, while a complete stranger waved a sharp knife in front of him. The realisation hit him like a truck, and he wasted no time in jumping in and saving him. The stranger with the knife was obviously experienced, leaving major cuts during their brawl, and even going for his neck in an attempt to slow him down. When he cut his stomach, his adrenalin kicked in, and Kenny's fist connected with the guys face.

His adrenaline blocked the pain. By the time he delivered the mugger to the nearest police station, he had time to calm down, and register the pain. The walk to the apartment was painful, but he managed to climb up the rickety fire escape on the side of his building, and crawl in through his window.

This was it, this was the routine. Come in through the window, sit on the floor, and wait for the other to come back.

When Kyle walked in, Kenny heard his breath hitch unpleasantly, as if he expected him to crawl through the wrong window and end up in his neighbor's living room.

Kenny waved at him, and Kyle left, returning with the medkit in his hands. He helped Kenny up to the couch, removed the top part of his costume, and quickly got to work.

Usually, when he busted through his window with injuries like these in the middle of the night, Kyle would be scolding him. He would be patching him up, commenting on how he shouldn't have been out this late because the only people up are drug dealers and idiots trying to get themselves hurt. In response, Kenny probably would've smiled and changed the subject, saying how nice the weather was that day and how he wanted to go on a walk. He would talk as if he was just Kenny, a pedestrian minding his own business, and not some dumbass vigilante actively trying to find trouble in his neighborhood.

But Kyle hadn't said a word since they got there. Kenny could tell from body language and expression that he was doing his best to stay calm. Which was weird, since he was no stranger to seeing Kenny this beat up.

Maybe it was Kenny's turn to start talking.

“Such a beautiful night out tonight. Who knew the neighbors could be this friendly?”

Kyle didn't respond to that.

“It's a shame they wouldn't let me keep the knife, though.” He muttered, a grin spreading on his face like wildfire, “It would've made the pain a lot more enduring.”

Kyle froze, looking up at the blond with the angriest glare he could muster.

Kenny's smile vanished. He tilted his head to the side, which made Kyle forcefully move his head back into place.

“What?” Kenny asked.

“stop. talking.” Kyle finally uttered. He kept his hand on Kenny's cheek, tilting it upwards to clean a scratch left on his neck.

With his hand on his face, Kenny could feel that Kyle was trembling. When he tried to look down to see his face, Kyle jerked his head upward.

“Kyle?”

No response.

Kenny grabbed the hand on his cheek, and looked down to see his face. Though he only caught a glimpse, he could see that Kyle had been crying. It was quiet, tears streaming down his face without even a change of breath coming from him.

Kenny came to the conclusion that Kyle must've been scarred. A few minutes ago, he had a knife pointed straight at him, and was forced to give up something in exchange for keeping his life. Who wouldn’t get scared from that?

“Kyle, it's okay.” He assured.

“What?”

Kenny pulled back, looking back at Kyle’s tear-stained face. Upon closer inspection, he also noticed that Kyle had also been sweating,

“The mugger? I promise he won’t be-”

“I don’t care.”

Kenny blinked.

“You’re not scared because of what happened?”

“I'm not worried about the guy, you jackass!”

Kyle pressed a new wipe against one of his deeper cuts as hard as he could, watching as Kenny winced in pain.

“Ow!”

“You're such a fucking idiot. I fucking hate you.” He wiped at his eyes with his free hand.

“What? What did I do?”

  
“You- you, you, _you-_ ” Kyle gritted his teeth. “That fucking.. _stunt_ you pulled tonight could’ve gotten you killed.”

“You mean when I jumped in and saved you?” He laughed, wincing when Kyle pressed on it again.

“I could've given him the wallet and left, but you-” he shook his head, “you stepped in and got hurt.”

“I don’t regret it.”

“Fucking dumbass. Piece of shit.”

“He was going to stab you!”

“I could've gotten away scot-free, and neither of us would have to be here right now. But because you're so high and mighty, you put yourself in danger.”

“High and mighty? I saw a stranger waving a knife at my _boyfriend_ , any sensible person would act if they saw something like that.”

“Yeah? Look at where it got you.”

“I'm not fragile, you know. I can handle some cuts.”

Kyle glared at him.

“You risked your god damn life for my wallet. That’s the stupidest shit you’ve ever done.”

“I doubt it.”

Kyle put a hand up to his cheek, Kenny putting his free hand over it.

“You could've died because of this. One swipe in the right spot, and you'd drop dead on the pavement.”

“But I didn't.”

“But you could've. You shouldn't have gotten involved.”

“Yeah- thanks, Captain Hindsight. I can practically feel my body healing because of your wise choice of words.”

Kyle thankfully let out a shaky laugh.

“Never do that again. Ever.”

“I can't promise anything.”

“If you die from something this stupid, I'll piss on your grave.”

“If you did that, I'll haunt you.”

He bandaged up the serious cuts with gauze, and the smaller cuts with pink band-aids.

“I got a new pack.” He explained when Kenny stared at the pink and flowery band-aid on his arm, “Thought you'd appreciate the colors.”

He was just glad that the subject changed.

“Thanks. It captures my masculinity.”

“Coming from the guy wearing briefs on the outside of his tights, I'm not surprised.”

Kyle got up, and walked away with a gait that wasn't so wobbly anymore.

“I designed this outfit when I was 10, cut me some slack!”

“I think you got cut enough for today.”

When he returned, Kyle threw something at him, and temporarily blinded him. He didn't need to look at it to know what it was.

“Get changed, I'll reheat some leftovers, and we can watch a movie together.”

“You don't have to-”

Kyle snapped his fingers, and pointed towards the bathroom door.

“No- stop it. I'm not having this conversation with you.”

After Kenny left to go get changed, Kyle felt his smile drop.

He took this time to think.

He wiped the sweat off of his forehead, thinking back to every single time he’s seen him burst through that window. Every time he stumbled through, bloody and bruised, offering to help out Kyle with bandaging him up because he was too stubborn to get a professional to do it. It hadn’t bothered him then, thinking about how dumb he was to be out there so late at night, and how lucky he was that some of the people in this town couldn’t hold a knife to save their life. It hadn’t bothered him when the injuries were in a worse condition than today’s- so why was he freaking out now?

He took a shaking breath, opening the fridge and pulling out some of the Chinese takeout that he had ordered for lunch but never finished. He set it in his microwave to heat it up.

Maybe it never occurred to him just how dangerous these criminals could be. Kenny, a small and sweet kid he met elementary school was now grown up and boasting about fights he’s won- maybe it’s made him think that these people weren’t as bad as he originally thought they were. Maybe hearing about someone as harmless as Kenny being able to take these people down gave him the confidence to walk around in the middle of the night, without fear of being ambushed. Maybe that all came crashing down when he saw him actually fight someone who wasn’t afraid of holding back. The quiet kid he met when he was nearly 5 years old was now an agile adult that could kick anyone’s ass if he tried hard enough. And only after that had he realized that the streets weren’t as safe as he wanted it to be.

The microwaved beeped, and Kyle jolted violently. He put the carton full of food on his coffee table, and laid down on the couch.

Maybe what unsettled him most was knowing what would’ve happened if the night had gone differently, and he wasn’t there to see the fight. Kenny would’ve gone through the windows covered with scratches, Kyle would’ve called him a dumbass, thinking that whoever attacked him wasn’t skilled in the slightest. He wouldn’t have been able to see Kenny dodge death multiple times, instead assuming that everyone he was fighting took it down a notch to go easy on him.

He felt sick. He shut his eyes to keep the room from spinning, noting that his face was wet from the mixture of cold sweat and warm tears running down his face. Some friend he was, huh?

“Kyle?”

“The food’s on the coffee table.” He muttered without opening his eyes, “Get it while it’s hot.”

The lights turned off, soon leading Kyle to open his eyes again. The couch dipped underneath Kenny’s weight, and his breath hitched as he felt Kenny pull on his arm until he was sitting upright.

“What do you want to watch?”

Kyle, slowly, rested his head on Kenny’s shoulder, hoping that the gesture wasn't hurting him.

“I don’t know.” He sighed, “You can choose it this time.”


End file.
